What is the best software to use to make a poultry forum?

I would want to have an article section.

Also preferably cheap I’m don’t really have a lot of money.

I think SMF has an articles plugin that may work?

And SMF is open source, so the only cost should be your hosting. Of the open source "old style" forum scripts, SMF is probably the most modern.

From some basic research I also think Discourse might offer a function similar to what you are wanting, but you either have to have a VPS/dedicated server or use their SaaS offering to run it.

You can use any software you want, either open source or premium. I do not think there is any connection between the software and the niche. If you are looking for free, I think SMS is great. If you want articles, you can add wordpress on the directory or subdomain. When I was running SMF forum, I had a article section withing the forum, I published it as a regular forum thread and labeled it as article.

Nomad said:

either open source or premium. I do not think there is any connection between the software and the niche.

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I think one of the OP's major needs was the creation of "real" articles. Not all software can do that built in and one of the paid ones struggle and simply use a modified posting format and calls it an article.

If going with WordPress, it might be better to look at that as the actual core and then use one of the free discussion forum plug-ins that are tailored for use with WordPress. I personally would not want to have to go through the hassle of bridging content between the two.

Of course, when I hear someone making reference to articles, I've gotten spoiled to XenAddon's AMS.

I am using phpbb and it is a decent software. I am not sure about any add ons for phobb for articles or blog. I have never considered adding blog in my forum but I think putting your blog within your main forum can also work.

Tracy said:

If going with WordPress, it might be better to look at that as the actual core and then use one of the free discussion forum plug-ins that are tailored for use with WordPress. I personally would not want to have to go through the hassle of bridging content between the two.

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If articles are the focus, I agree with @Tracy that WordPress would be the best idea here. It's free. And then use wpForo or bbPress to add a forum functionality to the blog.

Tracy said:

I think one of the OP's major needs was the creation of "real" articles. Not all software can do that built in and one of the paid ones struggle and simply use a modified posting format and calls it an article.

If going with WordPress, it might be better to look at that as the actual core and then use one of the free discussion forum plug-ins that are tailored for use with WordPress.

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I haven't used add ons for articles in forums but I have published articles as a regular forum thread under article category or with article prefix. I once had a blog and forum on wordpress. The blog was on homepage and forum on directory. The forum was doing well until I sold it. I have also tried using wordpress for blog and regular forum software for forum.

Nomad said:

regular forum thread under article category or with article prefix.

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Those, to me, are not articles, but just a forum post.

To use Xenforo's so-called "articles" as an example:


Even Invision Community implementation is lacking in some ways.


Then compare that to something like this:

or this

There is a definite difference between those. All the built in Xenforo "article" consists of is basically post that has been massaged to look different. Invision Community offers their Pages application, but it does have a somewhat steep learning curve to get to compete with XenAddons AMS.

To me, articles need the ability to have pages so that you can create content in finer detail.

If you can keep it all under one script it is even better. When you start trying to bridge stand-alone forum and a stand-alone blog it can become very messy.

Tracy said:

Those, to me, are not articles, but just a forum post.

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Technically yes. It could be called a "very long" forum post.
Also, just because it is published as a forum post doesn't mean we have to call it so as long as it follows the standard rules of article and has been marked as article (prefix or category). I have see this being done on a lot of forums.

Nomad said:

I have see this being done on a lot of forums.

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And probably the main reason is because a good "real" article system does not exist for those forums so they have to make do with what they have.
And, to me, that is one of the limitations in many of the scripts now. They are still stuck in the "forum is all you need" outlook, when sites really need more to compete in todays internet environment.